The Purge (2013)

I caught the trailer for The Purge on You Tube, and it sure has some spine-tingling moments to it!

Is it just me, or does it seem comparable to The Strangers?

It sure has a very terrifying premise.

Also, good God, that fucking moronic kid.

edited 6th Apr '13 12:25:59 PM by dRoy

terrifying

You have an odd way of spelling "retarded"...

I like the idea. It doesn't make much sense, but I think it is a interesting premise.

What a stupid-ass premise. I wonder if they even attempt to explain what could lead the government to make that decision.

On the other hand, Lena Headey.

The premise is just a suspension bridge for your disbelief to get your over to a simple house invasion movie. The real premise is "bunch of weirdos want to break into your house to kill somebody in there". But we don't want to have to stick people out in the woods for no reason, we don't want letting the person in to seem crazy, we don't want to have to cut away to some bumbling cops to explain why the police aren't showing up. The easiest way is just with a set up that clears those problems up. So don't worry about the set up to get you to the movie, just worry about whether you want to watch this house invasion movie.

I don't. Those masks look stupid.

Well, yeah, it's stupid. But I like the idea of crime being legal (Kind of an oxymoron..) for one specific day. Something could be done with that concept.

I don't know, it feels like an awfully convoluted backstory for what seems to be a fairly basic Closed Circle-type Slasher Flick. By that nature it's unlikely to really explore the idea of "One day a year crime is legal" premise.

It is. I'm just saying I liked the idea.

Well, yes, the premise is used to justify the schlocky home invasion plot, but that's not an excuse. If anything, the fact that its unbelievably stupid premise was written solely to set up a basic schlock plot makes it all the worse.

My motto: "Just because you want to write a story, doesn't mean you should."

I argue that the potential massive vigilantism of nights like that would be more interesting than this closed circle.

Actually that sounds like it could be pretty big.

Yep. Give people a night of no law, and you wouldn't have a night of random violence. You'd have a night of *targeted* violence.

You also would have everybody not actively out hunting somebody sitting back in the most fortified building they can get, with all the people they absolutely trust around them, *as heavily armed as possible*, ready to kill anyone who seemed like they were about to attack. None of this "if they break past the windows we are helpless" nonsense.

This is the second dumbest concept I've ever seen for a movie.

Clearly, letting all the murderers in the United States do what they like for one night will reduce crime. Clearly.

Now, Crime Warfare. That sounds awesome. Incomprehensibly dangerous, but awesome.

In reality, the vast majority of crime committed on such a day would be petty: drug use, street racing, vandalism, obscenity, etc.

That sounds about right.

Nah, you'd get a lot of non-petty crime. It just wouldn't be *random* crime. It'd be targeted acts of revenge, or big crimes like bank robbery "saved up" by criminals rational enough to wait for the one day they are assured of no police.

And again, lots of vigilantism.

I have to say that one stranger the Sandin kid let in is a giant question mark. I can see the character going one of two ways:

1. He is exactly what he seems, a guy who's being targeted by a lynch mob just For the Evulz.
2. He is actually a member of the gang who they send to infiltrate any house and make it easy for them to launch a home invasion.

I've heard that some confidence games rely on exploiting a person's sense of politeness and decency to steal something from them. Maybe this is something like that taken up to murderous levels.

My brother told me about this film.

Do you think during the purge, movie theatres show child pornography?

I don't see why not. In the trailer, they say everything that's usually illegal is free game.

I dunno why they would, though. The theater wouldn't really benefit from it.

edited 8th Apr '13 6:48:59 PM by kalel94

Somehow I doubt they'd be able to make money.

Engaging in that sort of things seems like the kind of thing that would ruin your business during the other 364 days of the year.

Yeah, the "crime one day a year" thing does come off as a bit ridiculous, although it does have some historical background in festivals like the Feast of Fools or the Roman Saturnalia. I don't think it would have far-reaching benefits, but most crimes are petty ones and a day when people can flaunt minor crimes could indeed create a pressure valve for society. My instinct would be that major things like going out and killing and raping would be partially prevented by the sheer number of people who'd gladly use deadly force to defend themselves plus all of the other predators out there. Seems like it would also lead to a lot of court cases coming down to someone trying to prove that their crime was committed on this day of mischief and therefore non-prosecutable.

And yeah, odds are good that the guy being saved is in on it. If nothing else, the trailer implies that the house was pretty well locked-up and yet windows are getting smashed left and right. Otherwise, the gangs would seem to be a stunning example of a Super-Persistent Predator in human form. Why assault a house that's practically a fortress when there are other people to torment?

Of course, another possibility is that the "gang" is not nearly as disorganized as they look, and are actually a government-sanctioned death squad out to silence this guy, possibly for revealing that the whole "crime for one day" thing just plain doesn't work.